Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-01

do not utterly fail may grow well and look
| thrifty, and yet not yield WELL or the grain
! may lack in quality or the crop be deficient
in some way, so that practically the ulti-
mate success of in-growing in any
| locality turns upon the varieties cultivated.
What are the best varieties of each grain
| furnishes fruitful topic of discussion at
every meeting of grain-growers and is the
| subject of more experiment on expert
mental farms, and by enterprisirg farmers,
than any other one thing The National
| Department of Agriculture had its origin
! in the effort to put farmers in the way of
| getting new varieties Of seeds.
WHEAT.
An exhaustive article on the cultivation
| of wheat in California appears in another
column of this paper 1t has been known
| as the choicest and most desirable of bread
plants from the very earliest times. We
are alike ignorant of its origin and of its
| native country. 1t was known in ancient
| Egypt and Assyria, and is often mentioned
| in the Old Testament From those early
days in the worlds history the methods of
| wheat culture made no very considerable
progress until the middle or last part of the
| last century. In this age wheat has greatly
supplanted the other bread grains of previ-
| Gus ages. Rye, buckwheat, barley and oats
| have largely lost their place as bread grains
among people of our civilization, and the
change is rapidly going on in other coun-
| tries 1t is perhaps about complete here
and III Great Britain.
With present methods of production and
| trans portation wheat travels much more
| than half way around the world and the
| farmers of the upper Columbia, California,
| Dakota Illinois, Russia and India compete
in the same markets. The English laborer
| who, thirty years ago, ate rye bread, now
buys his wheaton loaf, the grain for which
may have been grown i'll either of these
widely distant regions
INDIAN CORN.
OF the cereal productions of the country
Indian corn stands first in amount, much
exceeding the sum of all the others. The
census returns of 1879 shows the crop to
have an average of 90, ,368. .S69 acres, pro-
ducing 1854, S61 ,535 bushels. Since that
date the production has largely increased.
1t is grown in every State in the Union,
and is the principal crop throughout the
/ valley of the Mississippi. California pro-
duces annually over 100000 bushels of
corn, which is grown with success in all
portions of the State, anu particularly so on
the river bottoms.
Indian corn is the only ceral used to any
extent for human food in an Inripe state.
When in the milk it is most nutri-
tious and excellent food 1t is a native of
America. Its use, when green, was COM
mon among all thesIndians who cultivated
ii when first known to the whites. and
among many of the tribes its season was
celebrated with feasts and religious cere-
mony. The business of canning green
| corn has become one of great magnitude
single establishments planting several
thousand acres annually for that purpose,
and the business is steadily on the increase.
OATS.
Oats stands the third cereal in impor-
tance in the United States. The acreage
| and total production at the taking of the
last census amounted to 16, IA ,593 acres,
producing 407, ,S5S. 500 bushels California
| produced something over 100000 bushels.
| 1t grows well and produces well in every
| portion of the State, but is not so valuable
a crop as either wheat or barley.
Oats belongs nominally to a cooler eli
mate than that which is best adapted to
wheat, or at least to one with cooler sum-
mers.
BARLEY.
| The acreage and production Of barley in